Irwin Allen Ginsberg, who was a core member of the Beat Generation was born in Newark, New Jersey to Louis Ginsberg, a Jewish schoolteacher and sometime poet and Naomi Levy, an active communist. He had an older brother, Eugene who became a lawyer. His mother often took him to communist meetings with her when he was a child. A particular journey he took with his mother to her therapist had a deep psychological impact on him.
His relationship with his mother became a prominent influence on his work. His mother, Naomi battled schizophrenia, delusions and disordered thinking for the most part of her life and was institutionalized in Rockland and Greystone. Her life and struggles were the subject of his poem ‘Kaddish.’ Kaddish is a Jewish mourning prayer for the dead, denied to his mother as she died in a mental institution.
Ginsberg attended Montclair State College and later joined Columbia University. It was there he met Lucien Carr, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, his fellow beat poets. His ‘Howl,’ Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ and Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ are the most well-known works of the Beat Generation.
He lived an unconventional life. He was a counter culturalist, supported anti-militarism, participated in anti-war rallies, was a trailblazer for LGBTQ+ visibility in the arts and a proponent for psychedelic culture who embraced Buddhist and Eastern philosophy. Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable moments in his life.
‘Howl’ Obscenity Trial– Ginsberg wrote his poem ‘Howl’ in 1954. It was published in 1956 and underwent an Obscenity trial in 1957. The reason was that he had freely discussed homosexuality and used explicit imagery. Shortly after it was published by City Lights Books, Customs seized the copies of the poem. Not only that, police officers went undercover to purchase its copies and arrested the publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. An overreaction? Homosexuality was criminalized in the US back then and Ginsberg’s poem had shocked even the most liberal of the critics. The seizures drew further attention and became a rallying cry for the advocates of free speech. Public outcry was a major force in conducting the obscenity trial. Judge Clayton W. Horn eventually ruled that the poem was not obscene and had cultural, artistic and social value. ‘Howl’ not only became a metaphor for the Beatniks but a symbol of resistance against censorship and conservatism.
His visit to India- To explore culturally and spiritually, Ginsberg embarked on a journey to India with his partner, Peter Orlovsky in 1962. In Calcutta, he contrasted the chaos as well as its beauty with the structured materialism of the West. He visited Banaras, Bombay and Delhi including remote villages and various religious sites. His connections with prominent poets like Sunil Gangopadhyay and Shakti Chattopadhyay only increased his dissatisfaction with societal and literary conventions. He was fascinated with the infusion of spirituality in the Indian classical music. In early 1963, Ginsberg left India physically exhausted but with an evolved and nuanced sense of spiritualism.
Hare Krishna Movement- Ginsberg became an advocate of the Hare Krishna Movement after meeting its founder Swami Prabhupada in the mid-1960s. He was deeply moved with the chant of Hare Krishna mantra. He saw it as a means to transcend the ego and connect to a universal spirit. He thought of it as a higher form of devotion that drove him to ecstasy. In 1968, he appeared on a TV show ‘Firing Line’ hosted by conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. During the program, he started chanting the Hare Krishna mantra encouraging the audience and Buckley to join in. The host’s reaction was of bemusement and scepticism. It was celebrated as an act of defiance and spiritual expression by the counter cultural audience while some deemed it inappropriate for the formal setting of the show.
Top 10 Quotes by Allen Ginsberg-
- “Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.”
- “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night.”
- “Poets are damned… but see with the eyes of angels.”
- “Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman’s an angel!”
- “I know too much and not enough”
- “America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.”
- “It isn’t enough for your heart to break because everybody’s heart is broken now.”
- “Which way will the sunflower turn surrounded by millions of suns?”
- “A naked lunch is natural to us. We eat reality sandwiches. But allegories are so much lettuce. Don’t hide the madness.”
- “Not even the human imagination satisfies the endless emptiness of the soul.”
What do you find the most fascinating about Ginsberg’s life? Tell us in the comments.
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